Bible Tuesday for Pentecost 19, 2016

Amos 6: 1, 4-7

Alas for those who are at ease in Zion, and confident on the hill of Samaria. 4Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the stall; 5who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and like David improvise on instruments of music; 6who drink wine from bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! 7Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile, and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.

This passage is in a section of the prophecy of Amos which scolds various factions in both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. The above passage takes aim at the ruling elites in both Jerusalem, the capitol of the Southern Kingdom, and Samaria, the Capitol of the Northern Kingdom. They are described as wiling away the hours, eating gourmet foods, humming “snatches of songs to the tune of the lute”, all the while powers from the east attack its outlying cities.

In other places in Amos, and throughout the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament, this complacency is due to taking God for granted. The elites of Israel believed that because they were God’s chosen people, they were untouchable. They understood their wealth and status to be signs of God’s favor extended to them as over and against not only other counties and ethnicities, but even over the major of Israelites who were very poor. These elites do not use their wealth or power to serve God and help neighbor, as God demands, but rather to “feather their own nests”.

The consequences of their apathy is that they will be dragged into exile, shamed by a foreign power in front of their own country folks. Their wealth and their status will all fall away as they are shackled and dragged to Babylon.

Psalm 146

1Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul!

2I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life long.

3Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.

4When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish.

5Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God,

6who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever;

7who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free;

8the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.

9The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

10The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord!

The book of Psalms contains 150 psalms, which served as the hymnal for ancient Israel. The last several psalms are all praise psalms, like this one. Coupled with the above passage from Amos, verses 3-4 seem to describe the very elites Amos chastises. Yet, the Israelite peasant folk find God faithful and praise him!

1 Timothy 6:6-19

6Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment;7for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; 8but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. 9But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. 11But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

13In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15which he will bring about at the right time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. 16It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. 17As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, 19thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.

The ancient Israelite understanding of wealth was that there was only so much wealth, so much food, so much luxury to be had in the world. If some folks had more than their share, then other folks would have to get by with less. While this thought process was not at all popular in north America from its founding, the modern comprehension of the finitude of fossil fuels has given rise to a reincarnation of this concept: if some have more than their fair share, others must get by with much less.

This idea is part of the foundation of the Jewish and Christian teachings of the use of wealth. Wealth is a tool to be used in the service of God. To love the tool, to make it the center of your life, your score board, your main objective, is to completely distort the usefulness of the tool.

No matter how much or how little wealth one has, viewing it as a tool to carry out the will of God allows the faithful to “take hold of the life that really is life,” the love and peace that is ours in Christ Jesus.

Luke 16:19-31

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. 24He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ 25But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ 27He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— 28for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ 29Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ 30He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

This parable is in the form of a joke/fable and should not be read as a revelation by Jesus of the nature of heaven and hell. It is more formulaic, like “A guy walks into a bar…” as the opening line of so many jokes. As it is a Jewish formula, St. Peter is not at the gate of heaven, but Abraham serves as the host of heaven. There is no devil, but there certainly is torment and fire in hell. The rich man and his brothers are all evil. How do we know that? Are they wearing “black hats?” No, but there is six of them, the Hebrew number for evil. Nowhere else in all of the Bible is it mentioned that there is an unpassable chasm between the good life with Abraham (note, Jesus doesn’t call it “heaven”) and Hades.

So why does Jesus employ this well worn formula for his parable? To prophesy about his own effectiveness. The chapters of Luke 15 and 16 consist of Jesus teaching very hard, challenging lessons to those who oppose him, those who follow him like a rock star, and now those who are his disciples. Surely Jesus senses, if he does not have full knowledge, that his words are falling on naïve, and/or deaf ears. How exasperated Jesus must have been as he delivered the punch line of this parable, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they listen to someone who rises from the dead.”

These hard, challenging lessons from Luke, chapters 15 & 16, are all about money, and wealth. Jesus again and again states that to be a true follower of Jesus, our orientation must be to God; not to ourselves, or our comfort/security, not to estate we hand on to our kids, but to God. This is an extremely difficult lesson for we, followers of Jesus, and one that is not formulaic. We cannot merely tithe to our church and walk away self satisfied. What Jesus is calling for is a radical change in how we see the world and our place in it. In the Cain and Abel story from Genesis, Cain snaps at God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?!” Jesus would have us answer decisively, “Yes!” I am keeper of my neighbor and my neighbor is my keeper. And in each person’s life, and in each relationship in that person’s life, this will look different. How hard this is!!!!

Much easier to lounge apathetically on our couches, eat our dinners, flip on the TV’s, and close our eyes to the rest of the world. To which Jesus says, “When you come to your senses and open your eyes, it will